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Just imagine if we were only now building our first electric infrastructure. Of course that would mean that we’d be decades behind our other modern counterparts. But it would also mean that we’d be in a position to build it using the very latest and best technology. That is exactly the position China is in today. And thanks to its thriving export business, it has the means to do it right. This is a good thing, since bringing so many people up to a modern standard will bankrupt the planet unless truly significant innovations are made at every step along the way to ensure the highest possible efficiency.

China is preparing to invest $7.3 billion this coming year in smart grid technology, edging out the $7.2 billion in U.S. investments (Source: Zpryme). In fact, China is now spending more on its smart grid than it is on power generation.

The term smart grid refers to the application of various digital technologies to, among other things, modernize and automate transmission and distribution assets to anticipate and respond to system disturbances, enable greater use of variable energy sources–including renewable energy–and provide needed information and capability for customers to control their energy consumption effectively.

The State Grid Corporation of China, which is responsible for 80 percent of China’s power has announced plans to have its smart grid operational by 2020.

According to energy consultant Ryan Hodum, it “will be critical to develop a ‘clean energy backbone’ across China to deliver electrons derived from clean and efficient sources,” the Chinese government also “need[s] to focus on rural electrification so that the country not only develops a Smart Grid but…also raises the level of access to energy.”

The smart grid, with its ability to switch automatically from multiple sources, will be a key enabler for the use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, which are not always consistently available. Indeed, private firms and provincial governments across northern and eastern China are already commissioning several 10-gigawatt (GW) wind and solar generation bases. About 15 percent of China’s estimated 4200 GW of generation will be from renewables by 2020.

State Grid is already operating a 400 mile-long pilot mega-Volt transmission line. It plans to install 11,000 miles of these lines by 2012. These ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission lines will help reduce losses as power is transmitted across vast distances.

Although the UHV power line pilot was developed entirely in China, there are plans to open up the full smart grid development to outside companies. This news was not lost on US companies. GE recently announced a joint effort with the city of Yangzhou that will showcase smart grid technology. Mark Norbom, chief executive of GE’s China business, says GE hopes to show Chinese officials how its technology can “help build a world-class model of reliability and efficiency at just about every point in the transmission, distribution and consumption processes.”Other companies said to be buying into China’s smart grid boom include: Cisco, Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, ABB, Westinghouse, and Oracle.

RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. His work has appeared in Triple Pundit, GreenBiz, Justmeans, CSRWire, Sustainable Brands, PolicyInnovations, Social Earth, 3BL Media, ThomasNet, Huffington Post, Strategy+Business, Mechanical Engineering, and engineering.com among others . He is the co-author, with Roger Saillant, of Vapor Trails, an adventure novel that shows climate change from a human perspective. RP is a professional engineer - a prolific inventor with 52 patents and President of Rain Mountain LLC a an independent product development group. RP recently returned from Abu Dhabi where he traveled as the winner of the 2015 Sustainability Week blogging competition.Contact: bobolink52@gmail.com

10 responses

You can add American Superconductor to the list of other companies buying into China's smart grid. American Superconductor is selling smart grid products to connect wind farms to China's grid. Superconducting cables will come next. Korea will be ahead of China, and China ahead of the U.S., in commercializing superconducting cables. American Superconductor also is the prime electrical components supplier to Sinovel, the largest Chinese wind turbine manufacturer. Thanks for the article. http://www.caldwellstockreport.com

You can add American Superconductor to the list of other companies buying into China's smart grid. American Superconductor is selling smart grid products to connect wind farms to China's grid. Superconducting cables will come next. Korea will be ahead of China, and China ahead of the U.S., in commercializing superconducting cables. American Superconductor also is the prime electrical components supplier to Sinovel, the largest Chinese wind turbine manufacturer. Thanks for the article. http://www.caldwellstockreport.com

It is said that renewable energy is the Achilles Heel of the US and that energy storage is the Achilles Heel of the renewable energy sector. So finding a solution to mass energy storage for the smart grid of our near future should be a national priority. American Vanadium Corp. will be opening the only primary vanadium mine in the USA by the end of 2012 to supply battery-grade vanadium to makers of vanadium redox batteries. VRBs are the front runner for solving the energy storage problem.